France says Geneva Syria plans implies Assad must go
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L), French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius (C), Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter walk before a dinner hosted by the Swiss authorities after a meeting of the Action Group for Syria at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva June 30, 2012. — Reuters pic PARIS, July 1 — French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday that a text agreed by members of the UN Security Council in Geneva on a political transition for Syria implied that President Bashar al-Assad would have to step down.
"The text says specifically that there will be a transitional government with all powers ... it won't be Bashar al-Assad because it will be people that are agreed to by mutual consent.
"The opposition will never agree to him, so it signals implicitly that Assad must go and that he is finished," Fabius told television station TF1.
Fabius also said that if the Geneva agreement was not enough, France would return to the UN Security Council to ask for the plan to be placed under Chapter 7 of the UN charter so that it can be enforced.
Chapter 7 allows the Security Council to authorise actions ranging from sanctions to military intervention. — Reuters
